In his 13 years at the top of Turkish politics, first as prime minister and then as president, Tayyip Erdogan has survived many challenges, including the latest military coup attempt.
Friday's (July 15) military coup attempt is not the first challenge that President Tayyip Erdogan has faced in his 13 years at the top of Turkish politics.
Forces loyal to Turkey's government fought on Saturday (July 16) to crush the last remnants of a military coup attempt, which collapsed after crowds answered Erdogan's call to take to the streets and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks.
161 people were killed in the overnight violence, including many civilians, after a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power using tanks and attack helicopters. Some strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in the capital, Ankara, and others seized a major bridge in Istanbul.
Erdogan said he would purge the armed forces, which in the past have staged a number of successful coups, although not for more than 30 years.
A successful overthrow of Erdogan, who has ruled the country of about 80 million people since 2003, would have marked another seismic shift in the Middle East, five years after the Arab uprisings erupted and plunged Turkey's southern neighbour Syria into civil war.
However, a failed coup attempt could still destabilise a NATO member and major U.S. ally that lies between the European Union and the chaos of Syria, with Islamic State bombers targeting Turkish cities and the government also at war with Kurdish separatists.
Erdogan, a polarising figure whose Islamist-rooted ideology lies at odds with supporters of modern Turkey's secular principles, said the plotters had tried to attack him in the resort town of Marmaris.
Erdogan's AK Party has long had strained relations with the military, which has a history of mounting coups to defend secularism although it has not seized power directly since 1980.
His conservative religious vision for Turkey's future has also alienated many ordinary citizens who accuse him of authoritarianism. Police used heavy force in 2013 to suppress mass protest demanding more freedom.
However, he also commands the admiration and loyalty of millions of Turks, particularly for restoring order to an economy once beset by regular crises. Living standards have risen steadily under his rule, and while the economy has hit serious problems in recent years, it grew a greater-than-expected 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
Still, the violence is likely to hit a tourism industry already suffering from the bombings, and business confidence is also vulnerable.
